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French terminology

Author: mrn
Date: 2009-11-12 22:29

I've been doing some work out of Jeanjean's Vade Mecum du Clarinettiste, which I've found to be a really great book.

Up to now, I've been playing the finger and tongue exercises, but I hadn't tried the expressive etude at the end. So now I've pulled it out to take a look at it, and it's full of little instructions in French (not surprisingly).

I know a little French and what I don't know I can look up, but for some of these expressions, a literal translation doesn't help me much. I was wondering if somebody could tell me what these mean in musical terms:

"sans nuances ni vibrato" = lit. without nuances or vibrato. "Without vibrato" is clear enough, but what does Jeanjean mean by "without nuances?"

"Vibrez progressivement, selon la nuance" = lit. vibrate progressively according to the nuance. I don't know what this means. Something to do with vibrato, perhaps?

"Précis, mais sans secousses" I think this means "precise, but not jerky," but I'm not sure.

"Inflexions liées" = lit. connected inflections. Is this just some fancy way of saying legato, or does this mean something else? (It's written over a slur where the notes have tenuto marks under them)

"Inflexions détachées" = lit. detached inflections. Same thing--it's the "inflexions" part that I'm confused about. (Written over notes with tenuto marks over them (but no slur).)

"Pressez (à 2 temps)" Does this mean twice as fast, or does it mean get faster and now count 2 beats to the bar (as opposed to subdivided, like everything previous to this)? (Or does it means something else altogether?)

Thanks!!

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Re: French terminology

Author: cigleris
Date: 2009-11-12 23:05

Well, looking at my Vade Mecum the Inflexions Detachees I would interperate as leaning on each note slightly with will help highlight the syncopation of that bar.

Pressez is moving forward or pushing. Pressez ( a 2 temps) is moving forward but with the feeling more in 2 as opposed to the feel of 6.

You'll find these sorts of things in all of his study books. What I find annoying is his numbering system which I assume corresponds to a fingering system. What would have been nice if he'd included that somewhere at the beginning. Most of it is obvious what he is asking you to do but for me I'd like to see what he is suggesting to see if it works for me.

This book is wonderful and permanently lives in my case. Everyone should have one.

Peter Cigleris

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Re: French terminology

Author: mrn
Date: 2009-11-13 00:36

Thanks, Peter. I agree with you--everybody ought to have a copy of this book.

The numbers do correspond to various keys on the instrument ("clé" means key). With a little bit of deduction, I was able to figure out what the numbers mean--it's not too difficult if you know that M.D. stands for "main droite" (right hand) and M.G. stands for "main gauche" (left hand). Lower numbers, in general, correspond to keys lower down on the instrument.

Here's what I figured out:

Clé A = right hand E/B key (this really confused me at first)
Clé No. 1 = left hand E/B key
Clé No. 2 = left hand F#/C# key
Clé No. 3 = right hand F/C key
Clé No. 4 = Ab/Eb key
Clé No. 5 = right hand sliver key
Clé No. 6 = C#/G# key
Clé No. 7 = bottom side key
Clé No. 7 bis = left hand sliver key
Clé No. 8 = second side key from the bottom
Clé No. 9 = throat G# key
Clé No. 10 = throat A key
Clé No. 12 = register key
index = index finger (obviously)
medius = middle finger
pouce = thumb
sans lacher la cle X = without releasing key X
sans lacher la cle X, ni soulever Y = releasing neither X nor Y
prendre a la fois, les clés No. 2 et No. 3 = press keys 2 and 3 at the same time
à gauche = on the left
à droite = on the right
à vide = open (as in open G)

I imagine our Oehler-playing friends have similar complaints about Jettel. I bought one of his etude books, and it's full of mysterious little numbers, too.

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